In the prior art, an optical fiber is known which has an optical fiber main body including a core of crystal and a clad, the optical fiber main body is covered with a non-peeled-off layer (or primary coating) of ultra-violet ray-setting resin (UV resin), thermo-bridged resin or the like, which is further covered with a primary and a secondary covering layers.
When such an optical fiber is connected to a connector or the like, the primary and the secondary covering layers are removed but the non-peeled-off layer is left not removed to prevent the optical fiber main body.
By the way, in the device for removing the covering of an optical fiber of the prior art, a metal cutting blade is fixed to an attachment plate and the like. The cutting blade is set beside an optical fiber, and then the cutting blade is cut into the covering layers. Then, the optical fiber is pulled along the elongate direction of the optical fiber with the cutting blade being cut into the covering layers, thus, the covering layers are removed.
However, the device of the prior art has following problems to be solved:
Since the device for removing the covering of an optical fiber of the prior art has a rigid cutting blade made from metal, the cutting depth in the covering layers must be precisely selected. If the cutting depth is too large the cutting blade may contact with the optical fiber main body and may damage the non-peeled-off layer. On the other hand, if the cutting depth is too small, the covering layers may not be cut apart, and part of the layers may remain on the periphery of the optical fiber main body, which may result in non-uniform outer diameter, and which may spoil efficiency in connecting work using V-grooves, ferules and the like.
Therefore, precise positioning and fixing of the cutting blade on the attachment plate and the like for fixing the cutting blade is required. However, it may be difficult to assure sufficient preciseness especially in a case where the cutting blade is replaced on the construction site. If the cutting blade were ground to maintain the high precision, the manufacturing cost would become very high. In addition, the blade edge would become opt to stain, which might result in defective cutting.
The present invention has been made to solve the problems described above, and an object of this invention is to provide a device for removing covering of an optical fiber without damaging the optical fiber main body or the non-peeled-off layer, eliminating needs for high precision in cutting blade arrangement.